The Edge Foundation, founded by Neil Peterson, provides scholarships for ADHD coaching to students. The foundation trains coaches and connects them with students for weekly phone sessions. It aims to document the long-term benefits of coaching through a research study. Coaching can help students with ADHD improve academic performance and self-esteem by teaching organizational and focus techniques. The foundation hopes to expand coaching services to more students and raise awareness of coaching as an effective ADHD intervention.

1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Neil Peterson, Chairman & CEO
The Edge Foundation
2017 Fairview Avenue East, Suite I
Seattle, WA 98102
npeterson@edgefoundation.org
(206) 910-7515
Flexcar founder’s Edge Foundation offers scholarships
to provide ADHD students with personal coaching
SEATTLE (Dec. 1, 2008) – Neil Peterson, the founder and former CEO of the car-sharing
company Flexcar, today announced the creation of the Edge Foundation, a national nonprofit
organization that will connect children and young adults who have Attention Deficit Hyperac-
tivity Disorder (ADHD) with personal coaches professionally trained in ADHD-management
techniques.
The foundation trains professional coaches and connects them with students in cities
across the nation for weekly telephone sessions during the academic year. It also has launched
a two-year study, with researchers from Wayne State University in Detroit, to document the
long-term effectiveness of ADHD coaching.
Fees paid by coaches for their training—the foundation’s principal revenue—will be
used to fund scholarship grants and loans for families unable to afford coaching, said Peterson,
who learned he had ADHD soon after his two teen-age children were diagnosed with it. “When
the doctor told me ADHD was hereditary, that was like a punch to the gut,” he recalls. “Sud-
denly the challenges I had faced throughout my life, and those that were affecting my kids,
made sense.”
Personal coaching can be a highly effective intervention and support mechanism for
students with ADHD, but it’s still relatively unknown compared to traditional treatments such
as medication and therapy, Peterson said. “I created the Edge Foundation because my children
and I have benefited tremendously from ADHD coaching, and I want as many kids as possible
to have the opportunity to experience those same benefits,” he said.
The market for the Edge Foundation’s services is potentially huge. As many as 8 mil-
lion U.S. children—half of them still undiagnosed—are estimated to have ADHD, a complex
mental-health disorder characterized by inattention, impulsivity and/or hyperactivity. ADHD is
prevalent at all socioeconomic levels, in all ethnic groups, and at all IQ levels. It affects girls in
the same proportion as boys, and is not something outgrown in adulthood.
Life coaching has become a booming occupation, as evidenced by the International
Coach Federation’s six-fold growth to 12,000 members since 2000. “Finding kids and coaches
isn’t going to be a problem,” Peterson said. “Our greatest challenge is simply getting the word
out about the concept of coaching and how effective it can be for ADHD.”
Studies have shown that without effective intervention while young, and before reach-
ing adulthood, children with ADHD are twice as likely to commit a crime; six times as likely
to be substance abusers; four times as likely to have auto accidents; nearly twice as likely to be
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2. Edge Foundation release
Dec. 1, 2008
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divorced; twice as likely to be unemployed; and one-third as likely to graduate from college.
“The bottom line is that students with ADHD—many of whom may very well be some
of tomorrow’s leaders and innovators—need help, and schools and colleges need help keeping
them from dropping out,” Peterson said. “When delivered correctly by an ADHD-trained pro-
fesssional, personal coaching contributes directly to improved academic performance, en-
hanced social functioning and increased self-esteem. That’s what I hope to offer with the
Edge Foundation.”
After students apply at www.edgefoundation.org, the Edge Foundation matches them
with three potential coaches from its network. Once the student selects a coach, they work to-
gether in 40 half-hour sessions, either in person or by telephone, during the school year, with
the option of additional e-mail and phone contacts throughout the week. Students learn tech-
niques and strategies for setting goals, building confidence, organizing, scheduling, focusing,
prioritizing and persisting at tasks. The Foundation’s initial emphasis is on high-school and
college students, but its coaching services will be expanded to elementary and middle-school
students in coming years.
Peterson founded five companies during his 40-year executive career, most notably
Flexcar, the award-winning, car-sharing company that recently merged with Zipcar after being
bought by AOL founder Steve Case. He also headed the public-transportation agencies of Los
Angeles, Oakland and Seattle.
Peterson’s new memoir, “Embracing the Edge: Stories of Tenacity and Personal Pow-
er,” recounts how he overcame physical and learning disabilities to become a successful entre-
preneur, corporate executive and public servant. All profits from the book are being donated to
the Edge Foundation.
The book includes Peterson’s harrowing account of how, in June 2007, he and his child-
ren survived being swept away by a rogue wave that left them and two others in their hiking
party trapped for many hours in a cave on the west coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island, fight-
ing hypothermia and panic as they struggled to stay calm and focused while searching for an
escape route.
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